Monday, August 12, 2013

This past Saturday I was lucky enough to see FILMAGE:The story of Descendents/ALL at it's Ft. Collins Colorado Premiere. As Ft.Collins has been the home to many of the band's members over the years and this was a free showing that would be followed by a live performance from two incarnations of ALL, the crowd was appropriately excited beforehand and rambunctious and appreciative during the festivities making for quite a wild night. So wild in fact that I myself was ejected for an ill-advised stage-dive during the second ALL set, but I digress…..

For those not in the know THE DESCENDENTS are the long standing flag-bearers of Pop-Punk, Nerd-dom, Fishing and Coffee loved the world over by the haplessly rejected and un-cool. After their vocalist Milo Aukerman left the band in the 80's to pursue a career in Biology they continued on as simply: ALL with a succession of Three different vocalists over the next Twenty-Five years leading them to become the flag-bearers for the even MORE completely hopeless. (is that even possible?)
While loved considerably less than their previous incarnation ALL still built a small army of very dedicated and highly caffeinated fans.

Filmage does the almost impossible task of telling the story of countless members, locations, line up changes,re-formations, triumphs and heartbreak in a way that not only rewards die-hard fans who have been waiting for something like this but is also perfectly clear and enjoyable to folks who may only have the most passing knowledge of the band.

To this end the Movie weaves together Interviews with almost every band member past and present, archival and current live footage, Animation, Charts and talking head style blurbs with folks who were inspired by or close to them (most notably Dave Grohl of NIRVANA, FOO FIGHTERS Mark Hoppus of BLINK 182 and Fat Mike of NOFX) and still has time to detail Drummer Bill Stevenson's run in BLACK FLAG to boot.

The real achievement here on the part of the Filmmakers is paring down the no doubt endless amount of material they had to chose from to make a documentary that truly reflects the hilarious, fast and occasionally poignant songs they are attempting to tell the story of. The entire first part of the film is so funny and quickly paced that I found myself missing what was being said next as I was still laughing so hard from the previous scene.
Because of this you almost miss the occasional jagged broken bottle stab of ill-will or sadness that is mixed in early on. This is especially noticeable in the end of original DESCENDENTS Guitarist Tony Lombardo's and second ALL vocalist Scott Reynolds's respective interviews.

The second half of the film brings together the reformation of the DESCENDENTS not once but twice, the continuing trials of ALL and the severe health problems of Drummer and only constant member through their many incarnations : Bill Stevenson. Despite the fact that DESCENDENTS vocalist Milo is the most known member as his cartoon visage is on many LP sleeves and tattooed on just short of as many people as the BLACK FLAG bars, it is Stevenson who towers over the film with his larger than life personality in a way that you truly understand that he is both ALL and DESCENDENTS and they are Him but without belittling anyone else's contributions to the band.
More than anything Stevenson's discussion about the death of his Father is the most harrowing and effecting part of the film. For anyone who has ever wanted to live up to or impress a parent and then lost them before being able to do this…it will strike home very hard.

If I have any complaints at all they would be the occasional over-use of some pictures and the fact that the controversy surrounding some of the lyrics being considered sexist or homophobic is not addressed at any point. I would have liked to have seen a band perspective on this covered in the film.

Otherwise I can not recommend this enough to die hard or brand new fans, even folks who just like checking out random documentaries and know nothing about either band are going to find this fast paced and fun. That is the best compliment I can give it!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Hi Everyone! The Big news is we have recently moved to right next door of our previous location! Lots more space and nice natural light! Our new address is:

Celebrated Summer Records

3616 Falls Road

Baltimore MD

21211

443.866.9988

Here are some pics of the new spot:

We have an even greater wealth of original fliers and set lists on the walls now and 25 never before seen original Japanese Hardcore Photos from 1984 featuring COMES, MOBS, LIPCREAM, GHOUL and more! We are really happy with the move!

that brings us to our seven year anniversary, seems like it was just yesterday we opened in the back of Legends in Towson. We will be celebrating on Tue August 27th at the Ottobar here in Baltimore Maryland, we will be announcing bands this coming Monday so please watch this space! In the meantime here are some teaser posters for it:

the astute will notice the EXPO 70 theme running through these. Our recent trip to Japan in November 2012 (fifth time!) was hugely influential especially visiting the EXPO 70 memorial park. Here are some pics from the visit:

Osaka at Night

DEN DEN OSAKA

EXPO 70 Memorial park, Osaka

Genbaku Domu,( A-Bomb Dome) Hiroshima

The always excellent Time Bomb Records, Osaka.

The greatest and huge inspiration on Celebrated Summer Punk and Destroy, Osaka

Monday, March 25, 2013

Hello everyone! The graying of my hair and growing fear in my heart can only mean one thing: we are again approaching RECORD STORE DAY ! this is our first update/announcement for RSD which is April 20th 2013. I am sure there will be a few others as we get closer. Contained here will be a list of the RSD titles that we have been able to place orders forup t this point. There is no guarantee of how many (or any) copies we will receive we just order and cross our fingers! If the previous years have been any indication we should get at least some of most of these titles. Pretty Vague huh? Welcome to my hell. As with every year there will be no holds, no pre-orders and no on-line sales for these. The fun is lining up and hoping for the best! We will have Vegan and Non-vegan treats for the folks that show up and some other surprises as well! Let's get to some good news shall we? the last few years we have done some Celebrated Summer only exclusives including INTEGRITY, PULLING TEETH, MINDSET and PEACE. THis year we are proud to announce:

CELEBRATED SUMMER RECORDS EXCLUSIVES FOR RSD 2013:

MINDSET-LEAVE NO DOUBT LP (Silk Screened covers Purple vinyl 100 numbered copies for RSD at Celebrated Summer only) - Even as fans of the previous Mindset releases we were still completely bowled over by the HUGE step up in songwriting and execution for Mindset's first full length LP. We knew we would want to do something special again with Mindset and React! and this is it!

DOUBLE DAGGER-333 LP+DVD SET (Copies at Celebrated Summer/Atomic Books Only will contain an exclusive Fanzine by Nolan and Bruce from Double Dagger stamped and numbered for RSD 2013!) The final testament of Baltimore's Double Dagger! Six previously unreleased songs plus the DVD: If we shout loud enough which is a Documentary of their last tour! 7pm on Record Store Day Atomic Books and Celebrated Summer will have a listening party and Zine reading With Nolan and Bruce!

General RSD Titles we have ordered are below. We try hard to get as much as we can but as a smaller shop there are many Titles that are just beyond our distribution abilities,(We will be adding to this list as it gets closer tho) We encourage everyone to make the rounds to all the great Baltimore Record shops to find the stuff we don't have! Please feel free to share this update!